Cadil­lac Deville con­vert­ible

Not many peo­ple – and es­pe­cially any­one liv­ing on an early-ca­reer wage packet in a sec­ond-floor Lon­don flat – would choose a 7.0-litre Detroit be­he­moth as their first clas­sic. But I wanted an Amer­i­can con­vert­ible for a driv­ing trip with three friends to Barcelona and the Caddy was cheap – £3500. Driv­ing was more like pi­lot­ing an oil tanker, al­low­ing plenty of time for even gen­tle cor­ners. Bur­bling down through France with the sun shin­ing and a gal­lon of petrol be­ing burnt ev­ery 12 miles, though, this was a land-yacht to be proud of.